


Soulmates

by Seaside_Rendezvous



Category: Bohemian Rhapsody (Movie 2018), Bohemian Rhapsody (Movie 2018) Actor RPF
Genre: Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Established Relationship, Everyone Is Gay, Mazlek, Multi, Personality Swap, Pining, Soulmates
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-05-20
Updated: 2019-08-20
Packaged: 2020-03-08 07:45:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 10
Words: 20,279
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18890242
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Seaside_Rendezvous/pseuds/Seaside_Rendezvous
Summary: Joe and Rami are happily married and live in New York City with their adopted daughter, Queenie, a spunky lesbian teen who can't wait to switch bodies with her soulmate and start her life. Ben and Gwilym are happily married and live in London with their daughter, Alyssa, a tough as nails rebel chick who doesn't want anything to do with soulmates or love. One night, their daughters switch and they have to figure out how to get them to meet.





	1. The beginning

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [by happenstance (i'm just lucky)](https://archiveofourown.org/works/18703711) by [suspendedreality](https://archiveofourown.org/users/suspendedreality/pseuds/suspendedreality). 



> Hi there! This is the first time I post one of my fics on here, and I'm looking for feedback! For those who may not be familiar with the concept, this story takes place in a universe where people switch bodies with their soulmates for twenty-four hours in order to get to know them (I hope that becomes clear in the story.) I got this idea from mazlektov (myhamartia), go follow them, they're amazing! Anyway, I hope you enjoy this fic and please let me know if it can be improved upon!

It was such an average evening. There was absolutely nothing out of the ordinary. Rami had come home from work at the same time he always did, he'd placed his keys in the macaroni bowl Queenie had made for them in kindergarten, the way he had for the past decade. He'd checked himself in the mirror they had in the foyer. His hair was a mess, a matt of black curls, and he had bags under his eyes. Nothing new. He'd gone upstairs and figured he'd check in on Queenie.  
His daughter was in her room, lying in bed wrapped in an electric blanket. Her long dirty blond hair pooled around her as she stared intently at her computer screen with those beautiful brown eyes Rami had grown to love.  
"Hey," he greeted her, voice hoarse from talking to patients for eight hours.  
She didn't say anything, her eyes still glued to her screen.  
"Hi there," Rami said, getting right in her face.  
"Oh, hi!" she replied, a little startled.  
"What are you looking at?" he asked, turning to her laptop. It was the soulmates website. All you need to know about switching, matching and more! was written in bubble letters at the top. Queenie was reading a success story of a teenage couple who had fallen asleep and woken up in their soulmate's bodies to realize they lived right across the street from each other. There was a picture of two girls about Queenie's age, smiling at the camera and holding hands.  
"Hey, it's gonna happen for you eventually," Rami comforted her, "you just have to be patient."  
"I have been patient!" Queenie cried, "half of my class has already switched and they've already figured their lives out, and now it's time for me to decide where I'm gonna go to college and I don't know if I should move away or not. What if my soulmate lives right across the street from me, like these girls, and I move and everything becomes more complicated because of me? What do I do then?"  
"Q, there are tons of soulmate discounts on housing, plane tickets, what have you… that's how your father and I got to meet. He was doing stand up in New York while I was studying in Massachusets-"  
"-and you got super cheap train tickets and you met up halfway and you connected immediately," Queenie finished, "I know the story, dad. But what if I'm not so lucky? What if the universe is wrong?"  
"That's like less than 1% of the population, and of that 1%, most people end up fine. Your aunt Jasmine got matched with someone that wasn't a good fit, and they broke up and she moved on." Rami placed a hand on her shoulder reassuringly, "you're gonna be fine, Q. You're gonna find your other half, and your dad and I are gonna be there to accompany you through the whole process. You have nothing to worry about."  
"Who has nothing to worry about?" Joe asked, popping into Queenie's room. "Oh God, is this about the whole soulmates thing? Q, you're seventeen, the universe has years to find your other half."  
"What if the universe matches me when I'm ninety, and we only get to be together for a few years? What if it matches me when I'm already happily married?"  
"What if your dad's penis turns into a vagina?" Joe asked, making Queenie giggle instantly. He got a raised eyebrow from Rami. "The point is, you can't just sit there wondering 'what if', you just have to let things happen. I was so depressed when I matched with your dad. I was an alcoholic, I got heckled every night, my life was the worst-"  
"-and then he got you into AA and he made you want to be better, yeah, I know," Queenie filled in. She then laid back on her pillows, defeated, "I just don't think I can wait around for ten years! I want to meet my soulmate now so I can plan my life accordingly!"  
Rami sighed, "Q, there's really no such thing as life plans because life changes, all the time. And the best thing you can do is to try and change with it, to be able to adapt. But no matter what happens you need to remember that your dad and I are always gonna be there for you, to support you and to help you adapt, ok? You're not doing this alone."  
Queenie sighed, "yeah, well, I might. I got an email from UCLA. I got accepted."  
Joe's eyes widened to the size of plates, "Queenie, that's great! That's amazing!"  
"I don't know if I wanna go though. It's really expensive, and it's on the other side of the country."  
"Queenie, who gives a shit? It's UCLA! It's a great school!" Joe caught a sideways glance from Rami. He always hated when he cursed in front of Queenie, "it's perfect for what you want to study, it's got a great rep… it's a really good fit for you. You should at least check it out."  
Queenie sighed, "alright, I guess."  
Joe's neck began to flare red as annoyance turned to anger, "what do you mean you guess? It's UCLA. I broke my back trying to go there, and I still couldn't get in! Jesus, you're so ungrateful. I mean, it would be one thing if you didn't like the school, but just because you might get away from your soulmate?! That crazy!"  
Rami quickly grabbed Joe's hand and rubbed the back of it with his thumb, which was their signal for calm down. Joe's head stopped shaking and he took a breath.  
"Fine, do what you want. It's your life," he said, pulling away from Rami and walking to his room.  
Queenie began to nervously pull at the skin around her nails. She hated making her dad mad. He was a very passionate man, and while that made him charming and funny, it could also make him scary at times.  
"Listen, dad didn't mean it like that, ok? He loves you. He just wishes he had the opportunities you have right now," Rami explained.  
"I know. But he's also right, it's my life, so I should get to do what I want."  
"Of course," Rami said with a warm smile, rubbing circles on her back, "now what do you want for dinner?"  
The rest of the evening was the same. They had spaghetti and meatballs, talked about soulmates a little more. Then Queenie announced she was too tired to do the dishes and went to bed. Joe and Rami stayed behind to do them together.  
"Fucking UCLA," Joe said with a chuckle as he soaped up a plate, "I can't believe it. She was so cool about it, too. And she gets excited about everything, like remember how she squealed when she found that weird kid's book at the book fair?"  
"Yeah! The one that she'd started in elementary school and never finished," Rami said, taking the plate from Joe and rinsing it out, "she ran towards it screaming at a pitch only dogs can hear, it was so embarrassing."  
"Yeah, she definitely gets that from me," Joe said, "I wish I'd been calmer around her, you know? So she didn't turn out so emotional."  
"Joe! Being emotional is a wonderful quality, it makes her passionate and vibrant and full of life! Plus, you shouldn't have to censor yourself for the sake of your kid, though I do wish you'd swear a little less."  
"Yeah, I should, I really should," Joe agreed, "she does swear a lot. I wonder if her soulmate's gonna be bothered by that."  
"I don't think so. I think she'll find it charming," Rami said, always optimistic.  
Joe was quiet for a moment (a rare thing for him.) His eyes then lit up with realization, "God, remember when we switched? How awkward that was?"  
"Yeah, I remember I woke up next to a girl and I knew something was wrong," Rami said with a chuckle, "gosh, that seems like such a long time ago."  
"Totally," Joe laughed, "remember how it took us hours to contact each other because we kept calling our numbers at the same time?"  
"Yes! Then I finally got the genius idea to call up the soulmates hotline and they hooked us up. God, that first conversation we had… I could've talked to you for the whole twenty-four hours. It really was special."  
"Yeah, I'm glad you didn't though, 'cause there's no way I could've been able to pay for it. I was dead broke back then."  
"Yeah, you were also hungover, which was not a fun surprise!"  
They both laughed, happy to reminisce over such great memories.  
"I hope Queenie's soulmate isn't a drunk or a junkie, or worse," Joe remarked.  
"Yeah, well, maybe she'll help her turn around," Rami said, putting an arm over his shoulder.  
"God, you're so cheesy sometimes!" Joe said with a laugh.  
They finished with the dishes, then went upstairs and snuggled up with a movie. It was one of those romcoms Rami loved since it had the classic premise: two people switch to realize their soulmates live on the other side of the planet. The characters ran around, trying to get to the other person, unable to really speak the language or move around in their new bodies. Rami laughed at their antics.  
"I hope that doesn't happen to Queenie," Joe said, "knowing her, she'd probably mess it up."  
"She would be fine," Rami reassured him. He then snuggled near Joe and closed his eyes, slowly drifting off to sleep.  
What they didn't know is that somewhere, thousands of miles away, two people were having a very similar night. Two people whom they'd get to know quite well.


	2. Meanwhile, in London

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In this chapter, we learn about Gwilym and Ben's relationship as well as their daughter and Gwil's dangerous double life.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi there! I changed a minor detail at the end that was nagging at me, so I hope the chapter makes more sense now!

"Jesus Christ, what happened to you?" his husband cried, rushing over to him.  
Gwilym's face was butchered. The bridge of his nose was slightly slanted to the left, with a small vertical cut at the top. Ugly purple bruises curved under both of his eyes. His nostrils were plugged with pieces of cotton. There was dried blood on his sweater vest.  
"I got mugged," Gwilym answered, his voice hoarse, "bastard tried to take my wallet. I fought back and he sucker punched me."  
"Why would you fight back?!" Ben cried, his fingers tracing over his husband's butchered nose, "the first thing police tell you is to not resist!"  
"I know, I know, but I got to keep my wallet," Gwilym said, removing it from his jacket pocket triumphantly.  
"Well you could've kept your nose!" Ben groaned, "hold on, let me get you an ice pack."  
"What's going on?" came a voice from the staircase.  
"Your father's an idiot, that's what's going on!"  
Gwilym looked up at their daughter. She was wearing her favorite jacket, the brown leather one they'd given her for Christmas last year. Her eyelids were heavy with dark eye makeup, probably getting ready for a night out.  
"It's nothing," Gwil mouthed to her so Ben couldn't hear.  
"Your face looks like a tomato aggressively fucked a plumb," their daughter said, eyes wide.  
"Alyssa!" Ben called out, stomping over with an ice pack, "good one liner! Your father deserves it!"  
"Oh, c'mon," Gwil protested, taking the ice pack from Ben and gently placing it on his nose.  
"What happened to you?" Alyssa inquired.  
"I got mugged on Nevern Street."  
"Nevern Street? That's two minutes away from here, Jesus!" Ben then glanced sideways at Alyssa and began to shake his head, "oh, you're not going anywhere, missy! Not when your father has gotten mugged two minutes away from our home!"  
"I wasn't gonna go anywhere! I was planning on going out with the guys, but then I canceled because half of my first paper for the A level isn't done!" Alyssa yelled.  
"Oh, right..." Ben said, lowering his voice, "wait, isn't that why you skipped practice? Because you had to work on it?"  
"Yes!"  
"And you're still not done?"  
"Yes! It's an A level, it takes ages. I have like five pieces to finish, still."  
"I have no idea why you chose to do it. I mean, I know you like art, but is it really worth it?"  
"Yes, it's worth it because that's what I want to study later on!"  
Ben's brow furrowed, "what? Since when do you want to study art?"  
"Since always! I just never mention it because you flip out every time I talk about it."  
"But you said you were going to do soccer full time. That's what we agreed on, remember?"  
"No, that's what you wanted, it's never what we agreed on."  
"Well I'm sorry if I want my daughter to win the world cup instead of spending the rest of her life asking for donations on the Internet!"  
"Excuse me?!"  
As Ben and Alyssa continued to argue, Gwilym thought back to what had actually landed him that bloody nose.  
It was an evening like any other. He was walking home after a long day of trying to get kids to care about Shakespeare, a heavy book bag slung over his arm, when suddenly he heard crying coming from an alleyway. It was small, barely audible above the noise of the city, but Gwil could still perceive it. That sound took him back to when seventeen years ago, him and Ben had been walking down a very similar street and heard a very similar sound, which led them to find their future daughter lying in a dumpster. She was so small back then, just a little pink thing wrapped in a dirty blanket, nestled among garbage bags and candy wrappers. Ben, being the strongest one of them, reached in and slowly pulled her out. As soon as her little hand made contact with his skin she stopped crying, as if she knew that they were destined to take care of her.  
With that memory in mind, Gwil knew that he couldn't just go on his way pretending that he hadn't heard anything, so he followed the noise to a dumpster in the alleyway. He opened up the lid to find a small device nestled on the garbage bags.  
Before Gwil could react, someone came up behind him and slapped a cloth soaked in chloroform over his nose. His instinct kicked in immediately, driving him to stomp on his attacker's foot and turn around to deliver a right hook onto his face. He was shocked when his first made contact with something other than skin: something much harder. Steel, the person was wearing a mask made of thick steel to conceal his identity. There was a symbol carved on it: a galaxy crossed out.  
'Soulless!' Gwilym realized, recognizing the symbol from his training.  
But his attacker took advantage of that split second to shove him onto the dumpster and slap the cloth over his face again. Gwil tried to resist but ended up succumbing to the darkness.  
He woke up seemingly a second later to a bucketful of ice cold water being thrown in his face.  
“Where are they?!” The man screamed, his voice distorted by the mask, “where are the scrolls?!”  
Gwil tried to get a feel of his surroundings, taking in detail by detail. His book bag was gone, for one, since he couldn't feel the weight of it on his shoulder anymore. He could, however, feel cheap plastic pressing against the skin of his wrists, zip ties. He could also sense the back of a chair against him, and a strong smell of fish in the air. He saw that he was in a small room, the only source of light a single faulty bulb dangling from the ceiling. There was a mirror (with people watching him on the other side, most likely) and a door at the far end, probably locked.  
The man, exasperated by his silence, sucker punched Gwil, leading to a terrifying cracking noise and thick blood to pour from his nostrils to his lips.  
“Where are they?” The man screamed in his face, his breath so potent he could still smell it through his mask.  
“Did you have to eat garlic bread for lunch?” Gwil asked with a chuckle.  
“Oh, looks like we’ve got a comedian here! Did your daughter get that from you?”  
Gwil’s arrogance was gone, substituted by rage, “leave her out of this, you sick fuck!”  
“Oh, I will gladly leave her alone… as long as you tell me where the scrolls are,” the man replied. His voice was robotic and strange, Gwil only assumed it was a man, he couldn’t really tell.  
“Fine!” He spat, “they’re not scrolls, you imbecile. They’re carved in code on a wall. It’s at the British Museum, in the Egyptian section, you’ll recognize the soulmates symbol.”  
"Okay, that seems like a very stupid place to leave a priceless piece of information,” the man said, uncharacteristically skeptical.  
“Yeah, well, our government’s not the brightest, you’ve seen Brexit,” he replied.  
“Fair point,” the man said. He glanced at the mirror on the far wall, leading Gwil to believe someone had definitely been watching them.  
The door opened behind the man. A second person wearing a mask came in, holding a damp cloth.  
Gwil yelled in agony as the chemical made contact with his wound, stinging his face.  
Darkness clouded his vision, and then he woke up lying in the alleyway, his book bag once again slung over his shoulder.  
"Gwil?" Ben called out, snapping him out of his thoughts, "Gwil, you still with us?"  
"Yes, sorry, I was just trying to remember the mugger's face."  
"You didn't go to the police?!" Ben cried out.  
"Yes, I did, but I was still in shock so I wasn't much help to them," Gwil replied.  
"Alright, you know what? We've all had a long day, let's just sit down and have dinner like a normal family," Ben suggested.  
"That would be nice," Gwil commented.  
Ben served them both his specialty: lamb chops with extra gravy and a side of mashed potatoes. They all gobbled up their food and didn't say much.  
"Hortense switched today," Alyssa commented in order to break the silence, "it happened right in the middle of class, it was very funny. One second she was playing with her phone and then the next she was rattling off in Arab."  
"Arab, really?" Gwil said, interested, "where was her soulmate from?"  
"Dubai. Apparently he's the heir to a rich family, I'm sure Hortense couldn't be more thrilled," Alyssa quipped.  
"Yeah, sometimes the universe picks very inconvenient moments. You know, your father and I-"  
"-switched while you were in the middle of the international championship, and you were sitting for your A level exams," Alyssa finished, pointing at each of them with her fork, "yeah, I know, you've told me the story a thousand times."  
"Well, one day you'll have a story to annoy your children with," Gwil said with a chuckle.  
"Yeah, well, maybe not. Maybe I won't tell it because it won't be much of a story because I won't end up with that person," Alyssa said defiantly.  
Ben instinctively inched forward to shut her down, he was a fierce believer in soulmates, how could he not be? Gwil was the one who'd been there for him when no one else was, when he'd gotten kicked off the team after someone ratted him out for using cocaine why playing. Gwil hadn't left his side, even during the whole process of recovery, even when all he could do was cry and vomit. In his darkest moments, Gwil had been there, holding his hand, telling him everything was going to turn out fine.  
And that day he was there to place a hand on his knee and stop him from yelling at their daughter.  
"Well, that's okay, I mean there's a reason why there was such a fierce fight over soulless-"  
"-it's atheists, dad," Alyssa interrupted him, "soulless is derogatory."  
Gwill swallowed his annoyance, "right, atheists rights. You get to decide whoever you want to be with."  
"Yeah, but soulmates have a 90% success rate over atheist couples," Ben argued.  
"That's mostly because of the social pressures of being an atheist," Alyssa rebutted.  
"Guys, can we just have a normal family dinner, please?" Gwil asked softly, "I did get punched in the nose."  
"Yeah, that's 'cause you did the one thing everyone tells you not to do, resist," Alyssa snorted.  
"That's what I said!" Ben replied with a chuckle.  
Deep down, Gwil was happy they could bond over his pain.  
The rest of the night was normal. Alyssa ran upstairs to finish her art paper while they stayed behind to set the dishwasher.  
"She worries me, you know?" Ben said as he tried to fit another plate onto the rack, "I mean, all this stuff about quitting the team and studying art and soulmates being bullshit-"  
"She said she was gonna quit?" Gwil asked, eyebrows raised.  
"Yeah, she said her heart wasn't in it anymore. It just makes me feel so bad, you know? She's got so much talent… she's even better than me when I was her age."  
"Yeah, well, she's not you. Alyssa is Alyssa, and you can't expect her to live out your frustrated dreams," Gwil argued.  
"Alright, I guess I can understand that," Ben said, closing the dishwasher lid, "I hope the universe matches her with someone good, though. She needs someone to take care of her, I mean, we're not gonna be here forever."  
"Well, the universe matched us," Gwil reminded him, taking his hand and staring deeply into his eyes, "I'm sure it can match her with someone decent."  
Ben looked at his husband then, at his botched up nose and the tears welling up at the corner of his eyes. "You're a bloody idiot," he said with a smile. "Yeah, but I'm your idiot," Gwil replied. Ben tried to kiss him passionately then, but Gwil stopped him because his nose was too sensitive, so they hugged instead. Little did they know that as they shared this intimate moment together, their daughter was sneaking out the window.


	3. Soulless

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Our story takes an interesting turn when Alyssa finds out what it really means to be an atheist.

As annoying as it was to have her father force her to be an athlete, it had its perks: like making her agile and perfectly capable of sneaking out of the house without her parents ever noticing. Alyssa knew Ben would be on high alert with Gwil getting mugged, so she'd been careful to leave a note on her door saying she needed a good night's rest after working so hard on her paper. She also placed a brunette wig on top of a massive pillow covered by her blankets, in case Ben decided to check in on her. 

As Alyssa climbed down the wall, trying to remember where the bricks were slightly out so she could place her feet, she got a bad feeling in her gut. Maybe she shouldn't be doing this, after all, it was one thing to sneak out to a party and it was a very different to sneak out to a secret atheist meeting on the other side of the city.

But as she felt the ancient bricks coming apart under her feet, she knew it was too late to climb back up, so she kept on carefully descending the wall until she was close enough to the ground to jump down.

Alyssa landed amongst her father's magnolias on all fours like a cat. She quickly slapped the mud off her hands and pulled out her phone to make sure she knew exactly where to go. Alyssa studied the digital flyer she'd been e-mailed a few weeks ago: a vertical image of a crowd of people wearing t-shirts bearing the atheist symbol, a galaxy crossed out with a red X.  _ No one gets to choose who we can love!  _ was written in big angry letters at the top. The address was annotated at the bottom: apartment 124 Claudine Street, Corpse Hill, appropriately named since it was one of the worst neighborhoods in London. She'd frequented the area, though, mostly for weird niche parties, so she didn't really care. Alyssa pulled up her jacket collar against the cold as she went down the stairs to the subway station, repeating the address over and over in her head. 

She let out a breath once she got on the train, trying to remind herself that everything was going to be fine and that she'd been in far more dangerous situations. Still, she'd wished Jonah was there with her, telling her what a pussy she was being. He'd said he was doing something in that part of town and going all the way to her house to get her would be stupid, though it sounded like a vague excuse to her. 

Alyssa laid back in her seat and sighed. Jonah, her  _ actual  _ soulmate, the one she'd chosen. He was such a heartthrob with his floppy black hair, his melting brown eyes and his signature smirk. It wasn't just his looks, though: he was opinionated, intelligent, and he didn't play by the rules not just for the sake of it but because he knew those rules to be wrong. Alyssa admired him a lot for that. Still, she'd only done so from a distance until a few weeks ago, when they'd shared that kiss under the willow tree of their school yard. Alyssa never felt more alive than when she'd kissed him, like she was finally making a decision for herself. Jonah had continued talking to her, mostly online, but they never scheduled a date or anything like that and Alyssa felt weird asking. She wasn't the sentimental type.  

Thinking back to their relationship (if it could even be considered that) gave her the idea to text him.  _ I'm on the subway _ , she typed up quickly.

She got a reply faster than she'd imagined,  _ Good. You know where to get off? _

Alyssa was annoyed by the question,  _ yes, I'm not an idiot. I'll see you there.  _

She then turned off her phone and looked up at the map on the screen. She still had four stations to go, and her anxiety wasn't getting any better, so she decided to study the ads on the ceiling to distract herself. One that caught her eye was an advertisement for soulmate discounts for apartments in Wimbledon. The ad featured two people, a blond woman and a dark skinned man, standing in front of a building, smiling ear to ear like they'd just inhaled laughing gas.  _ Just matched? Get your new home 50% off! _

Alyssa laughed at that. Getting discounts for doing exactly what an unknown, outside force told you to do, what a load of bullshit. She thought she knew there was no way she could ever be happy with a person that she didn't choose, a person that was just appointed to her, all of a sudden without warning. That's why she was so afraid of switching, she abhorred the idea of having to tell someone that she wanted nothing to do with them, that she'd chosen her soulmate already. She also hated the idea of having to tell that to her parents, Ben and Gwilym Lee, the perfect example of the universe's vast knowledge. That's the whole reason why she was going to this meeting: to maybe find a way to convince them that no one, not even the universe itself, should be able to choose who she could spend the rest of her life with.  

Suddenly, the speaker announced Alyssa's station, pulling her out of her thoughts. She got off the train car immediately, thoughts of Jonah and the obnoxious ad left far behind. Once she found herself above ground, she followed the map on her phone to a dark building on the other side of the street. 

It was barely standing, paint peeling off everywhere and parts of it burned to a crisp, as if it had recently survived a fire. Alyssa checked the rusty numbers on the door to the ones on her phone and realized she was at the right place. She rang the bell three times, as it was instructed in the email. A few moments passed before someone opened the door just a crack.

“Password?” The voice inside inquired. It sounded like that of a man.

“ _ Fatum est falsus _ ,” Alyssa said, awkwardly sounding out each syllable, “is that how you pronounce it?”

The man inside closed the door to get the chain off and then opened it wide.

“Welcome to the Union,” he announced, gesturing towards the staircase.

She was then able to get a good look at the man. He was quite a large, in his early twenties, wearing ripped jeans and a t-shirt with the soulless symbol. He had a gold ring hooked on his left nostril and on his eyebrow. His hair was black and greasy, slicked back like in a gangster film. His appearance made Alyssa slightly uneasy.

“Follow me,” he said, crossing the black tiled foyer to ascend a long winding staircase. Alyssa glanced back at the door. She could leave now, just take the subway home and pretend like none of this ever happened.

But that wasn’t her style.

She ascended the staircase, following the man close behind. “What’s your name?” she asked.

“We don’t have names here,” the man explained as he went up, “there’s complete anonymity.”

“Alright,” Alyssa replied. She understood why they would have to take such measures. Even after the fierce rights campaign, atheists (or as most liked to called them,  _ soulless _ ) were regarded as cruel and inferior by the rest of society. 

The stairs led to a hallway with four doors, two on each side. The one at the far end had the symbol from the man’s t-shirt.

He opened the door and gestured Alyssa to go inside. She found herself stepping into the living room of a dingy apartment, the walls with the same peeling paint as the outside of the building. There were moisture stains on the roof, and the curtains looked like they’d been fished out of a dumpster, scratched and torn. The furniture (two coaches and an ottoman) were the same, piss colored and probably riddled with bed bugs. Fifty people were crammed inside, all of varying ages, from teenagers like Alyssa to people much older than her parents. Some of them were holding red cups and talking in big gestures. None of them were Jonah, though many stopped their conversation to turn to her as she came in. Alyssa squared her chest, determined to look tough with so many strange eyes on her.

“Grab a drink if you want, speech should be starting shortly,” the man said dryly, walking over to talk to a woman wearing black shorts and fishnets. 

Alyssa walked over to the keg and filled her cup up to the brim.  _ They can’t be that bad if they’ve got free booze,  _ she thought to herself, scorching it down. She didn’t care much for beer, but she longed for the comfort and numbness of alcohol.

Alyssa then looked around, trying to find a flash of Jonah's floppy hair or his pasty skin, when all of a sudden, all the noises of the room stopped. People ceased talking amongst themselves, someone turned off the music, whoever was pouring themselves a drink stopped immediately to face the front of the room. 

Alyssa caught her breath in her throat when she saw what they were all looking at: a strange man had just entered the living room from a side door. He wore a long black trench coat that covered him from his chin all the way down to his toes, the shiny metal tip of his boots poking underneath. He had on a pair of black leather gloves that he stroked delicately as if they were separate beings. But the most impressive thing was the mask he wore: oval, covering the whole of his face, reflecting the light off the bulbs as if it were made of steel. There was the symbol, at the center: a small drawing of the universe, with all its stars and galaxies, crossed out with a big red X.

Once he reached the front of the room the man dramatically pulled off his mask to reveal who he was underneath. Alyssa choked a gasp. Jonah. Of course it was Jonah.

The room erupted in cheers at the sight of their leader's face. The greasy man from earlier handed him a microphone and he began to speak, in a slow and hypnotic tone that made everyone in room hang on his every word.

"What is love?" he began as he paced the room, "is it a chemical reaction or is it a mystical feeling that affects us all? We don't know, we don't understand it. Even the most brilliant scientists and the greatest poets don't claim to fully grasp the concept of love, so why the  _ fuck  _ should we let some unknown force tell us what love is?"

The room erupted in cheers. Alyssa involuntarily joined them.

"Why the fuck should we let the so-call 'universe' decide what constitutes as eternal love? Why should we let it choose our soulmates? Why does the universe know me better than I know my own self?"

"Yeah!" Alyssa cried out with the rest. She could feel every word Jonah was saying resonate within her, for she had made herself those same questions.

"See, that's the trick, it  _ doesn't _ . The universe isn't what everyone claims it to be, a being with endless knowledge, a sort of consciousness. The universe is only the place where we live, and although it is beautiful and endless, it shouldn't get to decide who I can be with for the rest of my fucking life!"

Every person in the room cheered loudly, their voices merging into one filled with a rage that had been bottled up inside them for years.

"And even if the universe  _ was  _ a sort of consciousness, as everyone claims to be, it is certainly not a benevolent one since it treats us like puppets in its sick play!"

Another paused filled with the screams of fifty people. 

"I myself have defied the so-called universe. I switched a year ago, and as much as I tried to force myself to love that person, I couldn't do it. The so-called universe was  _ wrong _ ."

Pause. More rabid cheers, seemingly getting louder.

"My parents hated me. They couldn't believe I hadn't made the effort to at least try to love them, even though I had. They yelled at me, belittled me, called me lazy and cruel and worst of all…  _ soulless _ ."

That word made everyone in the crowd lose their minds, driving them to throw their cups on the ground in indignation. Alyssa could feel the whip of that word deep within her soul, she could feel its venom and its hatred.

"But I didn't succumb to their insults. I kept searching, both outside and within myself. I tried with many people, one of which is here tonight," he announced, pointing at Alyssa.

Her heart began to soar: this was it, this was the moment Jonah would confess her love for him.

"Thank you, Alyssa, for showing me what I really wanted. You see, Alyssa here is a wonderful person, but not the right one for me."

Her heart plummeted back down. What did he say?

"The right one for me, my actual soulmate… is Bethany."

Everyone clapped, whistled and cheered as a tall blond strutted through the crowd and kissed Jonah passionately.

"You son of a bitch!" Alyssa cried out, "you dirty son of a bitch! Is that why you made me come to this? So that I could be an example for your little presentation?"

Jonah blinked twice, thrown off by the question, "yes."

"You could've told me that in person, you fucking arsehole! Not in front of fifty people! You know what? I was wrong about you. You're not some revolutionary, you're a coward."

Murmurs of agreement rippled through the crowd.

"And thank  _ you  _ for showing me that."

With those final words, Alyssa threw the contents of her cup at him and stormed off.

She stomped down the stairs, across the street, to the subway station and into the train car once again.

The same ad was displayed on the ceiling. Suddenly it didn't seem so stupid, but more truthful than Alyssa would've imagined.

When she walked out of the car, up the stairs and into the cold night air, Alyssa realized what an awful mistake she'd made. Her own adolescent rebellion had made her fall for a complete douche. Suddenly the idea of switching didn't seem so awful, though it was to her a little inconvenient. The wound from that night was still fresh in her heart. Still, she didn't think much of it as she climbed back up her wall, entered her bedroom and threw herself onto her bed.

Alyssa was careful to not make any noise as she changed into her pajamas and hid the wig under her bed. As soon as her face hit the pillow she dozed off, thought of soulmates and switching and cowards disintegrating into her mind. 

She wouldn't be asleep for long. 


	4. Switched

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Queenie and Alyssa wake up in each other's bodies and have a chance to learn more about each other. The parents also meet and have a long conversation.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ok, a couple of things that I want to address...  
> 1) DO NOT SEND THIS TO ANYONE IN THE CAST. I will die of embarrassment if you do, and no one wants that  
> 2) This chapter does briefly touch on suicide, watch out for that  
> 3) Remember that this is an AU, so this DOES NOT reflect the actual families of the actors  
> 4) Remember that this is fiction  
> 5) You can talk to me about mazlek or BoRap on my Tumblr!: @dickcheneymademoneyofftheirakwar If you get the reference, God bless you!

Queenie woke up to the sound of a strange voice. It was that of a man, but none that she remembered.

"Come on now," he said, gently shaking her shoulder, "I know it's Saturday, but I don't want you to sleep for half the day." 

It didn't sound like Rami or Joe. His accent was different, rounder, like the one she'd heard in vintage movies. His voice was deeper as well. Queenie opened her eyes wide and screamed. That  _ definitely _ wasn't either of her parents. This man was completely different, average height, with short blond hair. He had quite an athletic build, with broad shoulders and biceps larger than Queenie's head. He wore a striped crew neck t-shirt and a pair of jeans, something neither of her parents would ever wear. His eyes were a piercing blue and they seemed to be staring right at her soul.

"The hell's gotten into you?" he asked, slightly exasperated.

Queenie looked down to a pair of hands that weren't her own. These were paler, with faint tan lines of rings, and the nails were longer, painted black. Her body was different, too, her breasts were larger, heavier. She wasn't even wearing her usual pijamas, instead all she had on was an old cotton t-shirt of a band she'd never heard of and a pair of striped cotton pants.

The strange man seemed to realize what was going on. "Gwil!" he called out, "I think Alyssa's switched!"

Queenie looked back at the man, "um, hi," she said. Her voice was different, too, it had more gravitas. Her accent matched that of the man.

"Oh, hi, I'm Alyssa's dad," he introduced himself awkwardly, extending his hand, "Ben."

"Hi Ben," Queenie greeted him, shaking his massive hand which seemed so much larger compared to her own, "I'm Queenie."

"Queenie, huh? Beautiful name," Ben said with a nervous chuckle.

"I'm here, I'm here!" Gwilym yelled, running into the room. He looked directly at Queenie, "hi."

"Um, Gwil, this is Queenie, Alyssa's um… soulmate," Ben explained, "Queenie, this is Gwil."

"Pleasure to meet you," he said, shaking her hand, "Christ, this is exciting! We were wondering when you were gonna show up!"

"Me too!" Queenie said with a laugh, bewildered by its sound. It was quieter than she'd figured, almost like a giggle. "Um, where am I, if I may ask?"

"Oh, yes, of course!" Gwil exclaimed, "you're in Wimbledon. That's Wimbledon, London. Where are you from?" 

"New York City," Queenie replied with a chuckle.

"New York City? Jesus, that's all the way across the pond! Quite a long ways away," Ben commented.

"Yeah. I have two dads, too. Hey, speaking of which, they're probably worried sick about me. Do you have a phone so I can call them?"

"Of course, of course!" Gwil exclaimed, "I'll go get it. Ben, why don't you make conversation?" 

"Right, 'cause I'm so great at that," Ben said sarcastically.

Gwil decided to ignore the comment and run to the other room.

"Hey, um, what happened to his face?" Queenie asked, circling around her nose.

"Oh, he got mugged yesterday. Yeah, this is a safe neighborhood, though," Ben reassured her, "at least the part where  _ we  _ live. Not that there's any other parts that are too dangerous," he babbled, "Gwil's just an idiot, he fought the guy to keep his wallet, and he managed to keep it but he got his nose broken."

"So a bitter win," Queenie said with a laugh.

"Yes, exactly! Um, what part of New York City are you from?"

"Well, I'm actually not  _ from  _ there, I just live there. I'm Argentinian, originally," Queenie explained.

Just then, Gwil ran into the room holding the phone, "what did I miss?"

"Queenie here isn't actually American, she's Argentinian. Adopted," Ben filled him in as Gwil passed her the phone.

Queenie typed in her parents' number and put it on speaker.  _ If this is a soulmate call, press 1  _ came the moderator's robotic voice. Queenie did so.  _ Who have you switched with?  _

Queenie then stared expectantly at the two.

"Uh, Alyssa! Alyssa Lee," they answered almost in unison.

Queenie typed the name in, plus the social security number Gwil gave her.

_ And who are you?  _

Queenie typed out her own name with her information.

_ One moment, please. _

Funky elevator style music came on. The three simply stood there, avoiding each other's eyes.

Suddenly the music stopped, replaced by a voice.

"Queenie? Queenie are you there?" Rami asked, seemingly both excited and anxious, "we're here with… um, what did you say your name was again? Alyssa, we're here with Alyssa!"

"Yeah, I'm here with um… Ben and Gwil," Queenie replied.

"Holy shit, holy  _ shit _ !" Joe's excited screams could be heard in the background, "this is crazy!"

"Um, hello there," came a voice that Queenie was bewildered to recognize as her own, "I'm Alyssa."

"Hey, I'm Queenie!" 

The parents on both sides of the world muffled their squeals and hugged one other, experiencing a sort of joy that they'd been waiting for all their lives.

"So, um… do you reckon we can talk on Skype? That way we can see each other," Alyssa suggested.

"Oh my God, yes! Ugh, I'm such an idiot, how did I not think of that?" Queenie said with a laugh, "sure, do you have a computer?"

"Yeah, I've got your dad's," Alyssa replied, "mine should be on my desk. The passcode is: worldcup1996, all together, no caps."

"I approve," Ben said, recognizing that as the year England won the world cup.

Gwil brought her the laptop and Queenie typed in the password, only to be met with a chilling home screen.

Alyssa had opened up an email with the details of, what Queenie assumed to be, some kind of soulless meeting. She recognized the symbol, she'd seen it in the news.

_ Okay, we're just gonna ignore that _ , she thought to herself, closing the tab and finding Skype.

But Ben and Gwil had seen it, and they shared a look of concern, afraid that their daughter had gone rogue without them noticing.

"Are you in?" Alyssa asked.

"Yeah, I'm in!" 

"Alright. I guess we should hang up now," she said dryly, "bye."

"Bye!" Queenie replied excitedly, letting Alyssa hang up as she typed in her dad's email and pressed the call button.

Within a few moments, she was greeted with the image of herself (or at least, her body) staring back at her, with her parents standing behind. Queenie looked at the body she was in now in the small screen at the corner and marvelled at her face. Alyssa was quite pretty, long silky brown hair (a little messy from just having woken up,) soft green eyes, and a cute button nose covered in a constellation of freckles. Her lips were thinner than Queenie's, paler, curving in a perfect cupid's bow. 

On the other side of the world, Alyssa stared at her small screen as well.  _ Not bad,  _ she thought. Queenie was quite lovely. Her skin wasn't as pale as Alyssa's, it had a slightly tanned hue, and her hair had blond highlights, which she thought were cool. It also reminded her of Bethany, but she squashed the thought immediately, not wanting to think of Jonah's cowardice ever again. 

"Oh my God, say something!" Joe blurted out excitedly.

"Oh, right, hi!" Queenie from Alyssa's body said with a wave.

"Hi!" Alyssa from Queenie's body replied, mimicking her gesture, "this is gonna be a weird day, isn't it?"

"Yup!" Queenie exclaimed with a laugh. 

"Hey, to the parents, why don't we give the girls some privacy and go on a different call, so we can talk?" Rami suggested.

"Yes! Yes, of course," Gwil exclaimed for the third time that day.

They exchanged emails and Ben and Gwil went off to call them from their home office, leaving the two soulmates alone.

✵ ✵ ✵

 

"Um, so… hi," Queenie said once again, visibly nervous.

"I think we're past that," Alyssa replied with a chuckle.   
"Yeah, you're right, um…" Queenie was suddenly at a loss for words. She began to play with a strand of hair, which she still couldn't believe wasn't her own. "I'm sorry, it's just… this is so crazy!" she exclaimed.

"Well, calm down, I mean, just because the universe says we have to be together, we don't have to," Alyssa said matter-of-factly, "there's no pressure here."

"Yeah, about that, um… I saw something on your computer that I thought was weird. Are you an atheist?" Queenie asked nervously.

"I mean, kind of. I don't think anyone should get to decide who I can love," she answered.

"Alright… cool," Queenie replied, "I can understand that. Do you still want to be with me though?"

"I'm willing to try, see if this works," she answered, though her tone of voice didn't match Queenie's in degree of excitement, "what about you?"

"Oh, yes, definitely!" she said, discreetly pulling up a page with questions to ask your soulmate once you switch. "Um, so… what are you most passionate about?"

"Art, definitely. I freaking love it, you can see some of my pieces there, behind you," Alyssa said, pointing at the wall of her room.

"Holy shit, those are yours?!" she cried.

Alyssa chuckled at her enthusiasm, "yeah. Most are mine, anyway. Except the one of the girl with the balloon, that's Billy," she said, pointing at it, "he's a pretty big deal here.. I mean,  _ there  _ in London. Famous street artist."

"Man, that's cool!" Queenie gushed, admiring the pieces. There was one of a girl kicking a soccer ball into space. Another was an interesting portrait of Gwil, in oils and crayon with poppy colors. But the one that attracted Queenie the most was one of two massive hands controlling a wooden puppet, a girl with long brown hair and a cute button nose. 

"These are really interesting," she said, "I like the puppet one most. Very symbolic."

"Yeah, that one's for my A level. My theme is control."

Queenie didn't want to delve into that (at least, not yet,) so she simply turned back to herself with a different spirit inside it and racked her brain for things to say.

"So what's your passion?" Alyssa asked in order to keep the conversation going.

"Well, I write a lot. I started with short stories, but then I moved onto scripts. I was writing a historical romance about a girl who's waiting to switch, but she never seems to… and then I got stuck, because I didn't know what switching was like. I read a ton of articles and testimonies, but I still couldn't describe the feeling… until now." 

"Lucky you," Alyssa said with a chuckle.

An awkward silence settled between them. Queenie was quick to fill it.

"So, um… do you have any pets?" 

"Nope, no pets," she answered dryly, "you?"

"I had a cat, but it fell out the window and still somehow survived," Queenie replied with a giggle.

Alyssa raised her eyebrows, amused, "you're joking! From this apartment?!"

"Yes! It fell down eleven stories, broke a marble table on its way down, literally broke it in half, and it still survived!"

"You're joking! What happened to it? Was it barely breathing?"

"Not really. It had a broken hip, so he had to wear a sort of cast shaped like a diaper for six months!"

"Christ!"

Queenie was happy she had that story to share. It never failed to make people laugh.

Laughter could also be heard coming from Gwil's home office. 

✵ ✵ ✵

Rami wasn't expecting Alyssa's parents to be so attractive. Gwilym looked like a hot college professor, with his sharp jawline, well kept beard and his rich chocolate brown eyes. He couldn't take his eyes off Ben, either, a prime human specimen with his broad shoulders and muscular arms.

After they introduced themselves, there was a bit of a lull in the conversation. None of them quite knew how to continue it, except Joe, who was used to breaking the ice, "so what do you guys do for a living?"

"Well, I'm an English Professor at King's College," Gwilym explained, "mostly medieval literature, especially Shakespeare. Ben here was a professional football player."

"He means 'soccer', not American football," Ben clarified.

"Ohh, I'm glad you said that, 'cause for a moment there I was like: you guys have that over there?" Joe said with a chuckle.

"Yeah. I'm retired, though, I had a run in with drugs, but I'm much better now, fully recovered so I train an all girls soccer team," Ben added, feeling it would be better to rip off the former addict band aid now instead of having to awkwardly explain later. 

"Does Alyssa play in it?" Joe asked.

"Yeah… well, not anymore. She quit to do art, apparently," Ben explained, unable to hide the bitterness in his voice.

"Queenie wants to do something the arts as well," Rami said in order to ease the tension, "she wants to study screenwriting and film studies."

"Really? That's quite interesting, where is she thinking of studying?"

"UCLA. She already got accepted!" Joe chimed in.

"Oh, wow. I guess Alyssa's going to be the one that'll have to move, then," Gwil commented.

"Well, let's not think that far ahead, they've only just met," Rami said, making both sides laugh.

"So what do  _ you _ two do for a living?"

"I'm a therapist, I work mostly with adolescents, especially kids with autism," Rami explained, "Joe's a stand up comedian. He's a pretty big deal, at least in America-"

"Oh,  _ that's _ where I know you from!" Ben said with a chuckle, "you did that Netflix special, um… ' _ A Nerd for a Day' _ ! Oh, it was so good!" 

"Thank you!" Joe exclaimed. 

"' _ A Nerd for a Day,'  _ what was that about?" Gwil inquired.

"Oh, most of the material was about how Rami and I switched," Joe explained, "yeah, I woke up in a dorm room in fucking Harvard while  _ he  _ woke up hangover, laying next to some chick in the middle of Chinatown!"

"Christ, that will never stop being funny!" Ben said with a chuckle, "so Harvard, ay? Did you study psychology there?" 

"I did, yeah. It was very research based, so I got to really dive into the disorders that I wanted to treat like major depressive disorder, autism, things like that. My twin brother was autistic and… sadly he took his life when we were both fourteen."

The humorous atmosphere darkened after those words. A bombshell had been dropped.

"Christ, I'm sorry, mate," Ben said.

"No, it's alright, I've had decades to heal and to come to terms with it. I'm just happy I get to treat people that are like him and that deal with the same problems, that way I feel like I still have a sort of connection with him. Like I'm helping them in ways I couldn't help him," Rami said, his voice becoming thin. Even after twenty years, he still got a knot in his throat when he talked about his brother.

A morbid silence settled between them. 

"So what happened to your nose?" Joe asked cheerfully, experienced at breaking the silence after Rami dropped the 'dead twin brother' bombshell.

"Oh, right,  _ this _ ," Gwil said with a laugh, the humorous atmosphere immediately restored.

✵ ✵ ✵

"Years later, I thought my parents were lying about Mittens having survived, but nope! It all actually happened," Queenie said with a laugh.

Alyssa laughed as well.  _ This isn't so bad,  _ she thought to herself,  _ I wish I hadn't spent so much time rejecting this. _

"Do you like animals?" Queenie asked.

"No, not especially," Alyssa answered honestly.

"Holy shit, me neither!" Queenie giggled, "I was so scared my soulmate was gonna be obsessed with dogs, because I cannot stand them. They're stinky, and they shed hairs everywhere and you have to collect their poop like you're their slave!"

"Oh my God, yes! I mean, what's the point of getting a pet if all you're going to do is just clean up after it?"

"Exactly!" Queenie replied, "anyway… where do you wanna meet? In person, I mean. I don't think my parents would mind coming over here, since the tickets are so cheap. We could also get a hotel at half price."

"Yeah, um..." Alyssa began to get nervous then. Things were going well, she didn't want them to get ruined, like they had with Jonah, "maybe let's wait until the twenty four hours are up, get used to each other's bodies and such, before meeting?"

"Ok, sure!" Queenie said, trying to hide the fact that she was a little scared about the fact that she didn't want to meet right away, "you have really nice tits, by the way," she commented, looking down.

Alyssa laughed so hard she doubled over. Nothing got her like dirty humor, "thank you! I love your tits, they're super light, they don't hurt my back at all."

"I think that's the nicest way of saying: you have small tits," Queenie joked.

"No, c'mon! They're wonderful, your tits are wonderful."

"Thank you very much!"

"I love these pajamas, by the way," Alyssa said, stretching her leg to show off the ' _ Rick and Morty _ ' pants she was wearing, "I love that show, it's brilliant, truly brilliant."

"It  _ is _ ! It deals with cosmic nihilism in a way that I don't think anyone has ever dealt with before," Queenie said.

There was a knock on the door. 

"Um, come in?" Queenie said awkwardly.

Alyssa rolled her eyes at her. Queenie laughed.

"So, how are things going in here?" Gwil asked as he entered the room.

"Pretty great, honestly," she replied.

"Alright, so, we talked with your parents a little bit and your father thinks that the best thing to do is to live a full day in each of your lives. That way you'll understand each other, and you won't get into too many fights later on because you'll get where the other one's coming from," Gwil explained.

"That sounds like a really good idea! Alyssa, thoughts?" 

"Sure, sounds fun," she answered in her casual tone.

"Great! So from now on, we will refer to  _ you  _ as Alyssa," Gwil said, pointing at her, "and we'll walk you through an average day in her life."

"We're gonna do the same thing over here!" Rami called from the screen.

"Awesome! This should be fun!"

And so began the most tumultuous day of their lives. 


	5. The organization

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This chapter focuses on Gwil's double life and the secret organization that he works for.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey, so this chapter centers on Gwil and his double life. If you're not interested in that and are just here for the fluff, tl:dr he's a spy who works for a secret organization that's trying to take down soulless. They think that a soulless mole has infiltrated their organization, so they're going to send Gwil undercover in disguise to confirm their doubts. There's also a very brief scene at the end where he cooks salmon for Ben and Queenie.

"You coming, Gwil?" Ben asked, gesturing towards the open door.

"Oh, I'd love to, but I'm really behind on papers," Gwil replied, "I need them all graded by the end of the week." 

"Alright, well, do you reckon you can have some lunch prepared by the time we get back?"

"Sure, of course!" Gwil replied, not wanting to say 'no' and risk seeming rude in front of Queenie, "you guys go have fun."

"Alright, cheers."

"So you guys  _ do  _ say 'cheers'!"

The door slammed shut behind them. Gwil let out a breath he didn't know he had been holding.

He then went to his bedroom and quickly changed into a midnight blue suit, red checkered socks, and black moccasins. He pulled out one of the secret compartments he'd installed in his bedside table to remove a single gold name tag. The number 4790 was engraved on it. Gwil quickly stuffed in his pocket and then went downstairs, looking right and left to make sure Ben and Queenie were nowhere in sight. He walked for about twenty minutes until he arrived at a pub that was mostly empty, except for the bartender who was scrubbing off imaginary spots on the counter.

"What can I get ya, mate?" 

"One Vesper martini, please," he answered, placing two silver coins on the counter, "I don't care how you stir it."

The bartender raised his eyebrows, "alright."

He then pulled one of the levers labeled 'classic' and a trap door immediately opened under Gwil's feet, sending him down a tunnel several miles underground. 

He landed on a soft orange matt in the middle of a large subterranean facility. Any average person would've thought they found themselves inside an office building; marble floors, desks with people answering phone calls, men and women in suits rushing about, their expressions cold and dead. Gwil quickly fished his name tag out of his pocket and pinned it on his suit, his movements swift and mechanical. 

He then approached one of the desks at the far end of the room.

"4790, what happened to you?" the lady behind the desk asked, pointing at her nose. The golden name tag pinned to her pocket read 5733.

"It's confidential," he replied, making her laugh. "Listen, I've got an appointment with 0001, it's very important."

"Alright, let me check," she typed a few things at light speed, "yup, that checks out! He's in his office right now, just go down there." 

"Perfect, thank you 5733, and say 'hello' to the kids for me," Gwil said with a wink.

The woman doubled over with laughter again. Gwil didn't actually know if she had kids, no one knew about each other's lives, that's what made it funny.

He got on one of the lifts which ironically went farther down and pressed -10 on the electronic pad.

_ Going down _ , came the announcer's robotic voice.

As soon as the doors were about to close, a hand went between them, forcing their reopening. The owner of the hand was a middle-aged man with floppy dark hair and pasty skin. He wore midnight blue pants with a red checkered shirt (a terrible stylistic choice, in Gwil's opinion,) and large round glasses with gold frames. 

"Hi there!" he said to Gwil cheerfully, standing awfully close to him, "press -3 for me, please?"

As he did so, Gwil got a look at his name tag: 15009, clearly new, which explained why he was so perky and not really in uniform.

A few moments of silence passed between them as the lift went down.

"Jesus, what happened to your nose?" the man inquired, staring directly at it.

"I got hit by a door," Gwil answered quickly, thinking he wouldn't get the confidentiality joke.

"Really? A young, smart looking bloke like you? I have a hard time believing that!" the man said with a chuckle.

Before Gwil could inform him that small talk was prohibited, the lift doors opened into a long hallway leading to a large area packed with rows of cubicles. 

"Well, this is me!" the man said, "have a lovely day, hope you get better!"

"Thank you," he answered with a smile. The guy was innocent, but he was kind.

The elevator doors opened a few moments later to lead into a long hallway with the same fluorescent lights and marble floors. It was identical to floor -3, except for the fact that there was only one door at the far end of the corridor.

Gwil still thought it was ludicrous that directors got a full floor just to themselves. Although deep down he knew that if he ever got the position, he wouldn't mind it at all.

Once he got to the door, he knocked on it twice before being called to enter. He stepped into a large office, much like the one located at the top floor of any skyscraper, leather couches, an expensive looking desk, large windows. Except for the minor detail that these windows, instead of looking out into a bustling metropolis, gave a full view of a massive cavern filled with large-scale nuclear weapons of various kinds.

"4790, you look like hell," the man sitting behind the desk said. He didn't look too well, either: his skin seemed to be slowly melting off his skull, like someone had draped a peach-colored sheet over a ball; you could count the white hairs left on his head with only one hand, and his eyes were sunk into his face, the light almost entirely drained from them.

"Yeah, well, I had a small run-in with a godforsaken soulless vigilante," Gwil replied, taking a seat in the chair in front of him.

"What happened, exactly? I couldn't really understand over those goddamn intercom things," he said, slapping the device on his desk.

"I was walking down Nevern Street. I heard a baby crying in the alleyway. I go to check it out, next thing I know there's a guy gagging me with chloroform. I woke up sometime later in some kind of interrogation room somewhere-"

"-Corpse Hill, to be precise," the man interrupted, "we pulled out the data from your GPS. Must've been inside one of those old abandoned buildings. What else happened?"

"They interrogated me, wanted to know where the scrolls were. I stuck to paragraph 4, of course," Gwil answered.

"Alright, that should occupy them for a bit. You said that you weren't able to look at the man's face, or hear his voice..."

"I don't even know if it was a man, I couldn't tell," Gwil answered gravely, suddenly grappling with the realization that his enemy was entirely unknown.

"And you said he had the soulless symbol on his mask?"

"The galaxy with the red X, yes," he confirmed, "how'd you think they find out about the scrolls?"

"I wish I could answer that, 4790. My theory is that we have a mole," he said, lowering his voice, "and I have no fucking clue how to figure out who it is."

Gwilym sat back in the leather chair. He had no clue, either. That's the thing about moles, they blend in, and if you let them know you're after them, they hide. 

Suddenly his pupils dilated with realization, "what if  _ we  _ infiltrated their organization? Find out what they're up to, see if they can tell us if they've sent someone over here. Who knows? If we play our cards right we might take them down before the mole can come back to them with any relevant information."

0001 chuckled with pride, "4790, you ol' fucker, you've done it again! Listen, this whole thing has to stay strictly between us. I'm afraid that the mole is someone in upper management. If I bring this idea to them, the guy will know and the whole operation will turn into a suicide mission. So it's just between you, me, and 0002."

"Alright, I understand completely. Who are we going to send, though? They know me, they've already seen my face."  _ They even know about my daughter,  _ Gwil added in his mind.

"Ah, yes, but they've never seen Jared Knowles," the man said, pulling out a folder from under his desk. Gwil opened it up to see a picture of a man of his same height and weight, but with a completely different face and set of hair. His cheeks were rounder, deeper, his jawline was less defined, and he didn't have a beard. Gwil flipped through the folder to find a birth certificate, library cards, a high school diploma, and a driver's license.

"See, we leave paper trails under different names in case we have to make up people who don't exist," the man explained, "we'll dress you up, cover up that thing you call a nose, and send you over there. When they sniff you out, bastards will see all this and think you're a real person. That's just a sample, we've also got social media accounts, LinkedIn profiles, anything a real person would have, we've got it. Lastly, a trusty birdie tells us that there's an initiation meeting next Friday."

"Next Friday? Christ. My daughter's just switched, I'm probably gonna be busy this week," Gwil answered.

"Do you want her to live?" 

He gulped, "God, yes."

"Then you'll have to be the asshole for a little while. It'll all be worth it in the end, I promise."

Gwil nodded. There was no one in the world that he trusted more than 0001. 

***

About a half hour later, Gwil found himself setting up the table in their apartment whilst simultaneously seasoning his signature salmon.

"We're back!" Ben announced as he opened the door.

"Did you guys have fun?" Gwil inquired.

"Yeah! I somehow managed to work out for two hours and not die!" Queenie joked, "Alyssa's body is insane, she's like a superhero."

Gwil chuckled, "happy to hear that. You must've worked up quite an appetite, though."

"God, yes," Queenie said, taking a seat at the table, "I wonder what Alyssa and my parents are up to?"

The answer would've given her a heart attack. 


	6. Lost and found

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> What once seemed lost is now found in this chapter... kind of.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi there! First off, let me apologize for not sticking to my schedule. I really wanted to post daily chapters, but my day was packed yesterday. Anyway, another thing that I wanted to say is that the character's families are completely separate from the actors'. Amir is not Sami, please don't interpret it as that. I hope I don't come off as insensitive, I just thought Amir would be a good character to connect both Gwil's organization and Rami and Joe. Anyway, let me know if you think it's weird. I still hope you enjoy the chapter, though!

It was 9:30 AM in New York City. Rami and Joe were so excited to finally meet Queenie’s soulmate, they figured they’d spend the day showing her Q’s favorite parts of New York. They started with breakfast at the plaza.

“Ten dollars for a glass of orange juice?” Alyssa exclaimed, looking at the menu, “are you lot rich?”

“Yeah, well, stand up is pretty big right now,” Joe said with a laugh.

“We’re not crazy rich, though,” Rami corrected, “we just figured you’d like to eat at one of Q’s favorite places.”

Alyssa looked around. The dining room was large and ostentatious, with a glass ceiling that could somehow withstand the weight of a massive crystal chandelier. There were complex leaf patterns carved along the edge of the ceiling, large columns made of marble, and potted plants decorating the space. The tables were all mahogany, covered in immaculate white table cloths that Alyssa were pretty sure could’ve been used to make high end wedding dresses. The people reflected the essence of the dining room, thousand dollar suits, clean cut black dresses, expensive looking sunglasses. Alyssa felt underdressed in her ripped jeans and black leather jacket (the only things in Queenie's closet that weren't white or had lace.)

“Everything ok?” Rami inquired, noticing the way Alyssa anxiously glanced around the large dining room.

“Yes, of course, of course. It’s just,” Alyssa thought of a way to not sound rude, “Christ, this place is big.”

“Everything’s bigger in America!” Joe said with a chuckle.

Alyssa laughed politely. As much of a rebel as she was, she was British, manners were in her DNA. “So, is Queenie really into these things, really big fancy things?”

“Um… kind of? I mean, she has dreams of greatness, that’s why she’s thinking of going to UCLA, you know? She wants to become a very famous movie director, have several motion pictures, stuff like that,” Joe explained, “I’m assuming that’s not really what you want?”

“Nope, not really. I’m very different to my dad in that sense, I never wanted to play professionally and go on the national team and stuff like that, I’m happy with little. When I was a kid I didn't even want to go to college or have a job. All I wanted was a farmhouse on the hill. I’d have my sheep, and my cows, and my chickens, and whenever I’d get thirsty I’d just get some water from the river. I’d still love to be completely self sufficient.”

“Queenie wanted to do that, too! When she was little, she ran away to Central Park," Rami said, "I remember it was a Monday, I came home from work, and she wasn't there. We couldn't afford a nanny back then, so I had no idea where she was. I called the police, I called Joe, he was on the road at the time. I was so scared and then I remembered that we'd gotten into a bit of a fight earlier because she didn't want to go preschool. I told her school was important to live in society, so she said she wanted to move and live on her own. So I got a hunch and I rushed to Central Park, and there she was, under the bridge eating chocolate and reading comic books. I should've yelled at her, but I was so happy to know she was ok, I just hugged her and cried. Meanwhile the cops were still looking for her!" 

"Yeah, and meanwhile I'm in Illinois in a shitty motel thinking that my daughter's probably gotten kidnapped by now!" Joe added, making the whole table laugh.

"That's so funny! I did something similar to that when I was a kid. I was angry at my parents for some reason, so I built a fort in our backyard and acted like it was my home. Eventually it started raining so I went back inside," Alyssa said with a giggle.

They finished their breakfast at the plaza (Alyssa almost had a heart attack when she glanced at the check) and then went back out onto the streets.

"Hey, do you mind if we go back to the house for a sec? I wasn't expecting to be so cold," Alyssa said, rubbing her arms, "Queenie's much thinner than me, so her body doesn't retain as much heat."

"Oh, yeah, sure, of course!" Joe replied. He then laughed, "I sound like your dad."

Alyssa laughed genuinely then.

She admired the city as they walked back to the apartment. Alyssa had never been anywhere outside of the UK, her family didn't travel much. New York City was so much more different than the quiet, grey streets of Wimbledon. The sun was visible in the sky (for one,) and the skyscrapers were so tall Alyssa felt like they were going to fall on top of her when she looked up. There was such an oversaturation of noises and smells; the honking of the cars, the rumble of the subway and the music of street artists overlapping with the smell of fried nuts from carts and white smoke. She had no idea how Queenie could sleep in a place like this, let alone think. The people were loud and eccentric, too, from a man in the street dressed in a vest and straw hat with a green parrot, to a woman with spiky pink hair who had a large white rat perched on her shoulder, to businessmen scanning the crowd like they were following someone. It was all deeply overwhelming.

Yet as they turned the corner, one voice rose above the rest. It was Rami's. He seemed to be desperately calling to someone farther ahead. "Amir?" he cried, "Amir!"

Alyssa followed his gaze to land on a man that looked exactly like Rami. They were identical, the exact same height and built, the same curly black hair, although Amir's was messier. He had facial hair as well, and rounder cheeks.

When he heard the name his face contorted in horror, and then took off running. Rami ran after him, still calling his name.

"Rami, no! It's not… him," Joe said, giving up at the end.

"What do you mean it's not him?"

Joe let out a heavy sigh, "Amir was Rami's twin brother. He killed himself when they were both fourteen."

"Bloody hell. Should we go after him?"

"No, that's ok. It's important that he sees it for himself."

They slowly walked back to the apartment in complete silence. Rami caught up with them at the door.

"It was him," he managed to say while catching his breath.

"It wasn't him, Rami," Joe said, placing a comforting hand on his shoulder.

"It was him! You saw him with your own eyes! Didn't you see him, Qu-?" Rami asked, cutting himself off when he realized that wasn't really his daughter, "oh, right. Sorry."

"That's okay," Alyssa tried to reassure him.

Rami took a few more breaths. He was staring off into space, as if trying to remember something. He turned back to Joe, eyes red with tears, "We made eye contact. It's like he recognized me. Joe, you know they never found his body, what if it was him?" 

"He left a  _ note _ , Rami," Joe said firmly, "he left you a note, it was in his handwriting, you saw it."

"Oh, c'mon! A note is just a piece of paper, it could've been him. It could've been fucking him," Rami's voice became so thin it gave out. He hugged Joe tightly as if trying to use him to suppress the memories.

Alyssa didn't know what to do. She simply stood to the side and averted her gaze, trying to look anywhere but at them. She only remembered feeling like this once in her life. She was probably eight years old. She was supposed to be asleep, but she was still up. Her parents were arguing loudly which scared her because they never did that. Ben got so angry he smashed a plate onto the floor. Alyssa could still hear the sound, that deafening  _ crash!  _ echoing in her mind. Ben started crying. He had his hand over his eyes, his shoulders were shivering and his whole face was red. Gwil hugged him until he calmed down. Alyssa felt better watching them hug each other. 

Funny enough, that's what Rami and Joe did, hugging each other until Rami calmed down. He apologized to Alyssa, she said it was fine. They took the elevator upstairs, Joe cracked a few jokes, they felt better. After Alyssa put on the biggest, fluffiest jacket she could find, Rami told them to go ahead to the MET while he stayed and called his sister. 

***

"Jesus, I'm so sorry you had to go through that," Queenie said when they were Skype calling later, "that's so weird, he's never done something like that before."

"Yeah, well, grief is a weird thing," Alyssa said with a shrug.

Queenie chuckled, "yeah, it really is. Hey, speaking of strange encounters, I ran into a girl… or more accurately, a girl ran into me when we were coming back from the gym. She was tall, blond, her name was Bethany..."

Alyssa sat up, grabbed the computer and pulled it close to her face, " _ What  _ did you say her name was?"

"Bethany," Queenie repeated, bewildered.  


	7. Bethany

It was 2:30 pm in London. Ben figured he'd do with Queenie the same things he did with Alyssa, which was work out like maniacs. They usually did so earlier in the day, but Queenie was in New York time, and he didn't want her to just sit around their apartment, bored out of her skull. He was hoping Gwil would be able to join them (he was much better at making conversation,) but he'd seen the mountains of papers he had to get through, he didn't want to be a nuisance. 

"So you guys workout every Saturday?" Queenie asked on their way to the gym.

"Yeah. I'm not one of those coaches that sits on the bench and yells stuff, I run with the girls, so I've got to stay in shape," he explained, "Alyssa has to as well, she's the captain, or well,  _ was _ . She's quitting the team to do art."

"But you don't think that she should?"

"Of course not! She's been playing since she could walk, she always comes up with the best strategies, she can run faster than anyone else on the team. I mean, she's good at art, don't get me wrong, but with soccer, she could really go somewhere. Would I like for her to get to the place where I was and not lose everything? Of course!" Ben sighed, "it just makes me mad, is all. I feel like she's throwing it all away."

"Well, she's not throwing it away, at least not in my opinion. She's leaving it to do something that she loves, something that she's passionate about."

"Yeah, well she was pretty fucking passionate until recently," Ben spat.

Queenie winced at his harsh words. Ben suddenly remembered that, although she looked exactly like Alyssa, she really wasn't. There were little things; the fact that she'd gone out wearing a massive windbreaker, gloves and a hat (which Ben thought was a little much), the way in which she walked, with smaller steps, the fact that her hands were inside her pockets instead of hooked on the bell loops of her jeans, etc. 

He quickly caught himself and apologized. "I'm sorry, I shouldn't have sworn."

"No, it's fine. My dad's a comedian, I've heard everything," she said with a laugh, "and I get where you're coming from. When I told my parents I wanted to study film my dad, Rami, wasn't super on board. He'd seen the way people from the industry treated him and Joe, and he didn't like it. He wanted me to study English instead, and to write on the side. But then I explained to him that I couldn't start a career like that with one foot out the door, that I need to really focus on it in order to grow and develop, and he understood. I think Alyssa is trying to do the same thing, focus on what she really loves."

Ben was quiet for a moment, thinking  _ holy shit, she's right.  _ He wanted to start laughing, he couldn't believe her daughter's soulmate was so wise, and at such a young age. 

"You know what? You're right, you're totally right," he then stopped in his tracks, "this is the place, by the way."

Ben opened the door to the gym and let her step through. He showed her which locker was hers, and where to put her stuff.

A few moments later they were both in the indoor area. Ben walked over to the weight section and laughed at Queenie's astonished expression. 

"What, too heavy for you?" he asked with a laugh.

"Um, yes! How much is that, 500 pounds?" she asked, pointing at a massive weight.

"How much is that in kilos?"

"Oh, right, you use the  _ metric  _ system," Queenie said with exaggerated disgust. 

Just as Ben was about to launch into a debate as to which system was better, a girl began to walk towards them. She was Alyssa's age, insanely attractive, with long curly blond hair and an hourglass figure, accentuated by her black tights. However, she seemed anxious and worried, like she'd done something wrong. The girl tapped Queenie on the shoulder.

"Hey, Alyssa, right? Listen, I'm really sorry about last night, I had no idea Jonah was going to do that. He acted like a complete tosser and he was super unfair to you."

Queenie just looked back at her with wide eyes like a deer in headlights.

"This isn't Alyssa. She switched last night, this is Queenie," Ben explained.

"Hi!" she said with a small wave.

Becky doubled over, laughing, "you're joking!"

"Why's that so funny?" Ben asked, getting defensive.

"Oh, nothing. Hey, when you see her again, tell her Becky says sorry, okay?" 

"Wait a minute. Did you say something about Jonah? Could that be Jonah Miller, by any chance?" 

Now it was Becky's turn to look like a deer in headlights. "Um…. I've got to go now. Bye!"

She jogged away, leaving two confused people behind.

***

"So, what was all of that about?" Queenie inquired hours later.

Alyssa took a deep breath before saying, "if I tell you something, do you promise not to freak out?"

Queenie looked to the side nervously, "I'll try." 

"Okay, well, Jonah and I sort of… dated, for a little bit. I mean, it wasn't really dating. He kissed me one night, and we texted quite a lot. He was… a real atheist, he was super into that. Anyway, one day he invited me to this atheist meeting… and I went, and he gave this whole speech, it was super impressive. Anyway, half way through his speech he talked about how he had to search for his true soulmate… and he mentioned me. I thought he was going to confess his love for me, but he only used me as an example for what he didn't want, and called up Becky instead."

"Jesus Christ, what an asshole!"

"I know, right? It's like, if you're going to do that, why do I have to be there for it? Anyway, that happened. I'm glad Becky apologized though. She really didn't have to, it should've Jonah, but it was still nice to hear."

"Yeah, I bet."

"So how'd the gym go?"

***

"Who's Jonah Miller?"

"A bloody wanker in Alyssa's class. From what I've heard, he switched last year, didn't give his soulmate a chance, and then went around shagging every girl he saw. That must've been one of them. I hope Alyssa wasn't involved with him."

"Damn," Queenie sighed, "anyway, wanna lift heavy things for two hours?"

Ben laughed, "God, yes!"

***   
"You good?" Ben asked later, panting.

"Honestly, yeah! Alyssa's body carried me through the whole thing, she's super strong!"

"Yeah. Too bad that's all gonna go to waste now that she wants to spend the rest of her life drawing," Ben said, taking a swing of his water bottle.

"Ben, c'mon. There's no reason for you to be bitter about this, it'll only make things worse between you two," Queenie reminded him.

Ben raised his eyebrows, "once again, you're right," he was quit to change the subject, "shower?"

Queenie laughed, "I thought you'd never ask! No offense, but Alyssa sweats like a pig. I didn't even know the human body could produce this much liquid."

Ben doubled over laughing, "you should pitch that joke to your dad!"

"Oh, I'm sure he's writing a special about this whole experience as we speak," she replied.

They hit the showers and then met up at the entrance. Ben led the way back to their home. After having spent the whole afternoon with him, Queenie felt better, so she hooked one arm on Ben's massive bicep, he didn't seem to mind.

She admired the streets as they walked. Wimbledon was much more different than the Upper East side, instead of constant traffic and large skyscrapers, the streets were quiet with a few cars driving by. Queenie could see only houses, mostly two or three stories high, with large windows and chimneys. She noticed the little details, from the potted plants on the telephone poles, to the shops with wooden signs, to the grey tiles of the streets. She liked how quiet it was, how the only sounds were the tapping of their feet, the occasional rumble of car engines, and birds chirping.

Ben pointed things out to her as they walked, from the pub Alyssa and her friends went to on Friday nights, to her favorite coffee shop, to the alleyway where they'd found her when she was a baby.

"Wait, wait,  _ wait _ ," Queenie said, stopping in her tracks, "you found her in a dumpster?"

Ben laughed, "crazy, right? We were walking home, and I heard a baby crying. We stopped and figured out it was coming from the alley, from one of the dampsters. I pulled the lid up, and there she was. She was all red and crying, I was a little scared, but I knew we couldn't just leave her there, so I picked her up in my arms. My sister has like eight kids, so I'm used to taking care of babies. Anyways, I picked her up… and she just sort of calmed down, instantly. It was amazing."

"That's the most wholesome thing I've ever heard," Queenie said with a smile, "what'd you do next? Did you guys to her to the police?"

"Oh yeah, we did. They put out missing posters, no one came to claim her. Social services came to pick her up, and we figured: hey, we found her, might as well keep her! Truth is we couldn't bare the thought of her going to some orphanage and growing up in the system. So we went to a few interviews, they searched hour place to make sure we didn't have drugs or anything. They knew who I was, and knew that I'd battled with addiction, which hurt our chances, but we nailed both interviews, so they let us keep her. And yeah… here we are!"

Queenie couldn't help but laugh, "that's such a sweet story!"

"Anyway, what's yours? How'd your parents adopt you?"

"Well, my dad saw an ad for a charity on TV, adopting kids who had been left on the street or picked up from abused homes. I didn't remember mine at all, thankfully, I was two. Sometimes I get flashbacks of the orphanage, a shabby building, a dirt road, a kid that protected me. His skin was darker mine, and he had a blue jacket that looked dirty, that's all I remember. I wanted to look into it later, but the orphanage burned down in a freak accident, so all the records were lost. Anyway, I stayed in the orphanage until I was four, then I got matched to Joe and Rami through the program. The great thing about it was that they sent the kid to the US, you don't have to pick them up, so my dad filled out all the paperwork and I arrived a couple of months later. I'm so grateful I got matched with them, I don't even want to think about what would've happened if I'd stayed. I look into Argentina from time to time, and their economy is in shambles. It's really sad."

"Yeah, you're both very lucky kids," Ben said with a chuckle.

***

"That sucks about the orphanage. I don't know anything about my biological parents, either, they never came to pick me up," Alyssa said after hearing the story.

"Yup. Anyway, moving onto happier things, we're gonna switch back in a few hours! Isn't that crazy?"

Alyssa laughed, "yeah, it really is. Anyway, I've thought a lot about what you said of meeting in person, and I'm definitely down to do that. I was just nervous before because of the whole Jonah thing."

"Oh, I understand completely! I've thought about it, too! I'm super busy with school right now, but how do you feel about coming over for Thanksgiving?"

Alyssa chuckled, "an actual American Thanksgiving? Hell yes!"

Little did they know that as they laughed and discussed their plans, someone was watching them through their webcam.  


	8. Villains

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In this chapter, we learn more about the people watching from behind the screen... the people behind the masks.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, I've completely ignored my schedule, and I'm very sorry about that. I had loads of exams, so I had to give that my full attention, but hopefully, now that that's over, I'll be able to post daily again! Anyway, full disclosure: there's no Mazlek or Ben Hardy and Gwil on this chapter, this is definitively a deep cut. TL;DR: Jonah has a younger brother named Bill who's good at hacking things. They know about Queenie and Alyssa's plans. They're planning on breaking and entering into their house while they're in the states. Jonah feels conflicted about this, he wants to do the right thing... but he also wants to be with the love his life, Gilbert. They talk things out and Gilbert sort of convinces him to keep working with them and try to find a better way. We also learn about the Soulless's enigmatic leader, Andrea... she's gonna be important later on! Anyway, that's the synopsis for those who just want the fluff (whom I deeply respect.) There will definitively be more fluff in the next few chapters, I promise!

Bill stared at the two girls on his screen, both unaware that he was watching them. He wrote down  _ meeting for Thanksgiving in the US  _ on his notepad and continued to watch.

"Maybe they'll start touching themselves," came a robotic voice from behind them.

"Gross!" Bill cried out, swatting away at his brother, "and would you take that damn thing off? It gives me the creeps."

Jonah removed his mask and stared at it, watching the metal reflect the light from the overhead lamp, "you've gotta admit, it's pretty wicked."

"Wicked in the bad sense," Bill argued, "I mean, I'm an atheist too, 100%, I just don't think that we have to do all this… all the spying and the torturing and everything."

"Yeah, well, let me remind you, that's exactly what  _ they're  _ doing," Jonah said, pointing at the screen showing The Organization's headquarters, "we have to play by their rules if we want to change anything."

"Listen, I get why we're infiltrating  _ them _ , but this?" he said, pointing at the two girls, "this is a private conversation. These two aren't even involved."

"Yeah, but their parents are. We need to keep an eye on them. Alyssa is 4790's only blind spot, you know that."

"Will you stop referring to him as his fucking number?"

Jonah shrugged, "what? It sounds cooler."

"Cooler?" Bill stood up from his chair and turned around to face him, " _ Cooler?  _ I thought we were doing something for people like us, not playing James Bond!"

"Do you want to be with Gilbert or not?"

Bill's rage evaporated at the mention of that name. He could see him in his mind's eye… with his black curls and his soft, tender skin… dark, like bitter chocolate… the skin he loved to trace with his fingertips.

"Of course I want to be with him," he breathed out, "but I don't want to become a Bond villain."

"Yeah, well, I don't know about you… but I think listening to a few conversations is a small price to pay for eternal love," Jonah said, pressing the unmute button on the keypad.

" _ -and it was crazy! Anyway, yeah, I think we both had a pretty successful day. It had a few bumps, but it was good overall, _ " 

" _ Yeah, _ " Alyssa replied from the second screen, taking a pause to yawn, " _ anyway, it's getting kind of late. I'm off to Bedfordshire. _ "

Queenie looked confused, " _ um… what? _ "

Alyssa laughed, " _ 'off to Bedfordshire,' it means going to bed. _ "

" _ Oh… cool. Me too! I'm gon' hit the hay as well! _ " Queenie tried doing a Southern accent, which was difficult since she was still in Alyssa's body. Alyssa laughed at the attempt, both girls said goodbye, and turned off the call. Queenie shut off the laptop while Alyssa stayed up.

"Pull up her screen," Jonah commanded.

Jonah input a few commands and the screen popped up. Alyssa was writing a good night text to her parents. She then shut it off, and the screen went black.

"Alright, well, we know that they're meeting on Thanksgiving, Gwil is obviously going to go with her. Which means their house will be left alone, which gives us a window of time to go in and see if we can find anything."   
"Okay, what?!" Bil cried out, "breaking and entering? Absolutely not!"

"Oh, don't see it as 'breaking and entering', see it as research!"

"Research? Research into someone private life?" Bill yelled, "you know what? No. Absolutely not."

He turned went in the back and yanked the cables out of the computers. All of the massive screens went dark simultaneously.

"Billy," Jonah said sternly, "you're being irrational."

"Fuck you!" he spat, taking the hard disks out and shoving them in the pockets of his hoodie, "I'm leaving!"

Jonah's eyes widened. He didn't know anything about tech, he was the designated speaker, his job was to know only how to get people riled up, but he knew those disks were important. "Bill," he repeated, standing in front of him. He was two years older than him, and that difference would always make him taller, stronger, superior, "put those back."

Bill looked up at him for a second. He then remembered a basketball trick Gilbert had taught him to runaway from bullies. Fake left, go right. 

Bill lunged for his left, and at the last possible moment ran right, escaping Jonah's grasp. He may have been bigger, but Bill was faster. He ran out of the computer lab, up the stairs, through the door and into the street.

Even when Jonah was far away him from him, not giving him chase anymore, Bill kept running through the streets of London, enjoying the chilly evening air whipping his face. He didn't know where he was running, he just kept going, fueled by adrenaline and something else… pride.

He only stopped to take a breath. He then looked around at the familiar trees, at the bakery where he and Gilbert had had their first secret day…

It finally hit him.

Gilbert.

He was only a few minutes away from his house.

Bill figured he'd go and ring the doorbell. Gilbert's grandparents had no problem with them dating, (maybe because Gibert hadn't switched yet,) but they were fine seeing them together. It was more Bill's parents, who were heartbroken after seeing Jonah fail at love and were clinging onto Bill in the hope that he would make them proud. They were a bigger obstacle. Bill ran up the steps and rang the doorbell once, still trying to catch his breath. 

" _ Coming! _ " came an elderly voice. A few moments later, the door swung open. Bill was ecstatic to see Gilbert's grandmother, Hortense. She was a character, to say the least, a small Jamaican woman with skin the color of warm honey. She always wore a pair of colorful slippers, a floral dress under a white apron, and a colorful hand knitted shawl. 

"Bill!" Hortense said gleefully, the wrinkles under her eyes and around her mouth deepening with her smile, "what can I do for you?"

"Hi Miss Roberts! Gilbert in?" Bill asked, pointing behind her.

"Yes, he's in. He just came back from lacrosse. Come inside, come, very cold out," she said, gesturing in and closing the door behind him, "would you like anything? Cup of tea?"

"No, I'm fine, thank you," Bill replied, all in one breath, "he in his room?"

"Yes, he's in his room. You keep the door open, okay?" the old woman said with a wink.

Bill blushed, "of course, of course."

He ran up the stairs and banged on the door.

"Come nah!" came a voice from inside, "who's it?"

"Your favorite white boy," Bill said jokingly, opening the door.

Gilbert's room was a mess. There were clothes everywhere, pants and jerseys and pieces of his uniform covering the floor like a carpet. He was sprawled out on his bed, hands over his head with his signature lopsided smile.

Bill couldn't help but glance down at his abdomen, taught and chiseled, like a renaissance statue. His eyes kept going down, down at the black cotton shorts hugging his thick, tanned legs… sturdy like tree trunks.

"Take a picture, it'll last longer," Gilbert said with a deep chuckle.

"Fuck off," Bill teased, getting on top of him and kissing him passionately.

"Close the door," Gilbert whispered in his ear.

"We can't. Hortense said not to," Bill replied, kissing him again.

"Man, I don't care what Hortense thinks! Close the damn door!" Gilbert protested.

"Alright, fine… but if she walks in here, we're going to be in trouble!" he teased, softly closing the door.

"Drop your clothes and come here, nah," Gilbert said in that deep, sexy voice of his.

Bill tore off his hoodie, and he dropped it on the floor, the hard disks jumped out like heavy stones.

"What's that?" Gilbert asked, peering closer, "that for Jo's… project?"

"Yeah. But I'm destroying them. He's gone completely mental, he wants to break into the guy's house and rummage it and everything."

"Yeah, well the guy  _ is _ a fucking special agent, it's not just anybody," Gilbert argued.

"I know, but it seems insane, it's breaking and entering," he said, taking a seat on the bed.

"Yeah? Well I kidnapped the guy. You didn't object to that."

"Yeah, well at least you didn't break his fucking nose."

"Kyle  _ had  _ to do that. He wasn't talking. There was no other way."

"There must've been another fucking way! Listen to yourself! You know what you sound like? A fucking villain, a goddamn comic book villain," Bill said, gesturing at one of the superhero posters on the wall.

"Did you forget who the real villains are? The ones who don't think we should be together? Well they play dirtier than we do. They have the whole parliament in the palm of their hands, they're puppet masters. Don't you want us to stop hiding? To go on a real date, like normal people?"

"Of course I do! I just wish there was another way..." Bill sighed.

Gilbert rubbed his shoulder gently, "hey… it'll be okay. Just keep doing your part, and it'll all be okay… we'll try to find a different way. Did Jonah ask her, about the breaking and entering? Did she approve that?"

Bill gulped. They weren't playing any kind of pronoun game, Bill knew exactly who she was. She was so big, so omnipresent she didn't need a name. "No, I don't think so."

"Well there you go! She'll probably say 'no' and let you figure something out. She's a reasonable woman, Andrea, you know her." 

Bill sighed deeply. He  _ did  _ know her. Andrea had reached out to him, asked for his help. He'd connected with him in a way he couldn't even describe… like they were in the same frequency, like they felt the same pain.

"Alright," he said, looking up, "alright, I'll tell him to ask her."

"Alright," Gilbert said. He then smiled and pulled him close, kissing him passionately, "now take off your fucking clothes."

Bill laughed and kissed him back, the hard disks left forgotten on the floor. 


	9. The Bomb

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Alyssa and Queenie finally get to meet each other for the first time! They go to Rami's apartment and have an obscenely large breakfast... until there's a knock at the door.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, first of all, I am so so SO sorry this took so long! I'm starting to ramp up to the climax in the story, which is the most difficult part to write, that's why I took so long. I started writing this without a plan in mind, and so it took me a while to draw one out, and once I had it it was hard sticking to it! However, I'm hoping I can get on a weekly schedule since I have a pretty clear idea of where this story is going. This chapter has lots of fluff, so I think you guys will enjoy it! As always, please don't send this to anyone in the cast, and if you have any feedback comment below!

Ben squinted and threw his right arm over his eyes, trying to protect himself from the harsh light above him. 

"Dad," he heard a voice, followed by two hands shaking his torso, "dad, c'mon, get up. We're here."

Ben groaned and opened his eyes. People were already getting their suitcases out of the overhead compartments and congesting along the aisles. The air was thick with that distinct airplane smell, disinfectant and stale nuts. Ben finally stood up and stretched a bit, only to realize that Alyssa was already exiting the cabin.

"Christ, wait for me!" he called after her, trying to remove his carry on from the overhead bin as quickly as possible. A kid snuck under his legs, making him wobble and almost drop his bag. Luckily he was able to get it down and not hurt anybody, but by the time he did so, Alyssa wasn't even in his eye line.

For the umtpeenth time, he wished Gwil was there. He'd gone on a two-month long trip to Scotland to help determine if some plays that were dug up had been written by Shakespeare. Ben was happy Gwil had gotten such an amazing opportunity to do what he loves, but he wished it wasn't for such a long time, especially when Alyssa had just switched. He'd wanted to wait until he got back to meet Queenie and her family in real life, but Gwil assured him that they'd be all together some other time, and that'd be rude to postpone Alyssa's long awaited reunion with Queenie. Ben had to agree with him on that since the girls had been texting and calling each other nonstop. They really couldn't wait to see each other in person. It was almost to the point where it seemed they'd forgotten there was anyone other than their soulmate. 

The parents talked to each other constantly as well. They'd already made a Whatsapp group (which Joe consistently flooded with memes and emojis,) and seemed to be getting along fine. When Ben expressed his concern that maybe the girls were becoming obsessed with each other, Rami assured him that it was all part of the 'honeymoon stage.' Being a renowned psychologist, he started doing research on soulmates and contacted some of his ex-classmates about it. He'd shared with the group a graph showing the five stages of soulmate love. The first one was the honeymoon stage, in which two people felt a connection with each other, but it was all about passion. Then there was the commitment stage, in which the relationship started to get serious and became more than just a fling. Third was the disillusionment stage, usually around six months after soulmates switched, in which their brains would get used to the endorphins secreted when seeing that person, and therefore find the other less attractive than before. Rami made it clear that it was crucial for them to help Alyssa and Queenie get past that stage of disillusionment, so they wouldn't lose each other. Fourth was the 'pre-marital' stage, in which soulmates had pushed past the disillusionment and learned to love each other for who they really are. And finally came the 'post-marital' stage, in which they would commit fully to one another and create a bond of familiarity stronger than anything else in the universe.     

Ben didn't even know about the five stages, but he wished he had since it would've saved him a lot of sleepless nights wondering whether or not the universe had made a mistake. He hoped he would be able to help Alyssa so she wouldn't have to suffer the way he did. 

Remembering the five stages made Ben think of Gwil. He pictured him in a stuffy office, hunched over a table while scrutinizing some pieces of paper so ancient and thin they would rip to the touch. Maybe there would be someone there, helping him… someone smarter than Ben, who didn't space out when he talked about iambic pentameter and wordplay and things of the sort. Maybe they’d also be taller than Ben, so it wouldn’t be awkward for them to kiss…

As soon as Ben realized where his mind had gone, he pushed the idea away. Gwil would never cheat on him, never, absolutely not… would he? The anxiety swelling in his chest made him want to do something, so as soon as they arrived at customs, Ben got on the airport's wifi and texted Gwil that they'd landed safely. There was no reply, but then again, Gwil hadn't really been communicating during his trip, saying that it was all very chaotic and he had to focus 100% on his work. Still, Ben couldn't help but feel suspicious about that. It had all happened so fast… a phone call, a discussion and then  _ blam!  _ Gwil had closed the door behind him, leaving Ben alone with Alyssa. He'd done some research on this Shakespeare discovery to make sure it wasn't all made up, and sure enough he'd found articles by the BBC and the New York Times talking about it like it was the discovery of the century. There was even a short interview with Gwil, who spoke eloquently of how he would verify the authenticity of these plays. 

Still, Ben felt like something was off, especially after watching that interview. Usually when Gwil got to talking about Shakespeare he would start speaking at a thousand miles per hour, getting animated, making gestures and clever jokes. But he seemed nervous in the interview, like he was uncomfortable in the spotlight, which was very unlike him. He also found it odd that he chose this project over witnessing their daughter's first interaction with her soulmate. Gwil knew how big this was, why would he just run off right as things got official? And there was also, of course, still the thought of him cheating nagging away at his brain. 

"Am I a jealous bitch?" Ben had asked Rami during a Skype call late at night, "like, in your own professional opinion?"

Rami chuckled, "I can't really give you that. I'm not a couples therapist, first of all, and second, I've never really sat down with you two… but, in my own  _ personal  _ opinion, I think this is perfectly normal. I used to get really anxious when Joe left to go on the road for weeks on end… I mean, he's in a hotel room, all by himself, super lonely and  _ super horny _ , why wouldn't he hook up with someone? So I got him on the phone, I talked to him about it, and he completely understood where I was coming from. He immediately started telling jokes to make me feel better. He…” Rami chuckled, “he told me that  _ he  _ was scared I was going to cheat on  _ him _ , which would’ve been difficult considering I had to take care of a five year old by myself. He even said that he wouldn't be able to ‘get it up’ with anyone else, if you know what I mean."

"Oh, I definitiviley know what you mean, mate," Ben said, wiggling his eyebrows.

"Yeah… and it made me feel a lot better because, even though it was funny, I knew he was telling the truth. He even told me to send him a few pictures, so he wouldn't be so lonely, and that really worked for us! It still does, to this day. So don't stress, talk to him and figure out what works for you guys."

That advice had stuck with Ben. He'd tried to get Gwil on the phone, but it'd been difficult, he was always busy… so one day he just got desperate. He tore the house apart looking for a specific item and finally found it… the electric green lingerie Gwil had bought for him their last anniversary. It consisted of a mesh vest that showcased Ben’s toned abdomen, a g-string and matching fingerless gloves. Ben anxiously put the ensemble on and took some pictures, sure that it would get Gwil all riled up, but there was still no reply. 

Ben looked at the time on his phone and sighed deeply. It was seven a.m in New York, which meant it was midnight in London. At that moment, he wanted nothing more than to be in their bed, wrapped up in Gwil's arms.

"Bloody hell, will you wake up?" Alyssa said, grabbing his arm and pulling him towards the shorter soulmates line.

"I can't believe we're finally able to be here," he said cheerfully. There were only four people in front of them, "I haven't been able to use this line in like twenty years."

"Right? I don't know why I was so against the whole soulmates thing. Certainly has its perks!"

"It was because of that wanker, Jonah," Ben spat, "has he been stalking you?"

"For the last fucking time, no," Alyssa replied sternly, "just forget about him, okay?"

Ben sighed. He couldn't forget, how could he? The idea of some asshole playing with his daughter's heart was unbearable. Still, he tried his best to push it towards the back of his mind as they checked their passports.

After about a half hour, they had all their luggage and were already heading out the door. Ben couldn't believe they'd done everything so quickly, he really loved the fact her daughter had switched. 

The first thing they noticed when they walked outside (apart from the freezing cold) were Joe and Queenie holding up a massive, glittery sign. The words:  _ Welcome to Murica!  _ Were written in giant bubble letters, filled with red, white and blue glitter. Alyssa saw the sign and laughed out loud. It was corny, but it was exactly what Queenie would do. 

She ran over to her and gave her a big hug. Queenie figured she'd be bold and kissed her on the cheek. Alyssa felt that the kiss was an invitation, so she turned her head and kissed Queenie full on the lips. She slipped in her tongue, and although Queenie was surprised, she wasn't reluctant. Before they knew it, they were making out in the middle of the airport. 

Joe doubled over and pretended to throw up while Rami took a picture of them with his phone. "Oh my God, please don't tell me you guys are going to be like this the whole week!" Joe exclaimed.

"Oh, we definitely are!" Queenie said, breaking off the kiss and embracing Alyssa, who felt a little saddened they had to cut things short.

"Alright, well, I don't know about you but my nipples are about pierce through my shirt," Ben said, zipping up his jacket, "you've got a car?" 

"Uh, yeah!" 

And they were off.

***   

Back at the apartment, Rami opened the door for them and led to the dining room, where he presented his masterpiece: a signature American breakfast. Ben's mouth began to water just from the smells: coffee, bacon, pancakes. His eyes widened to the size of plates when he looked down at the table, overflowing with tall stacks of pancakes with little cubes of butter on top, fried eggs sunny side up (how Rami knew that's how he liked them, he'd never know), freshly cooked bacon, sausages, golden hash browns, toast, two pitchers of orange juice and brewed coffee.

"We were gonna go to the plaza again, but we don't have that kind of money," Rami said with a chuckle, "plus, we wanted to do something a little more homey," he added, winking at Alyssa.

"Bloody hell, this is… this is bonkers," Ben said, ogling at the sheer amount of food, "how many calories are on this? Six thousand? Jesus..." he chuckled, "You know, I'm glad you quit soccer, 'cause you wouldn't be able to eat even a quarter of this!"

"That's the first time I've heard you be happy about that," Alyssa said.

"Yea, well… I don't hate the idea anymore. I'm cool with it," Ben answered honestly whilst taking a seat at the table, "have you got any crumpets?"

The entire table erupted in laughter.

They were quiet for a while, Ben and Alyssa too busy wolfing down their food to talk. As usual, it was Joe who broke the silence. 

"So Alyssa, what are you thinking of studying now that soccer's not an option?"

"Design, most likely. I'd love to have my own pieces sold in a gallery one day."

"You know, UCLA has a pretty great design program  _ and  _ they offer full-tuition soulmate scholarships! We could totally go there next year," Queenie chimed in.

"Yeah, well, let's not think about that yet. I mean, how long have we known each other? A month?" Alyssa said with a chuckle.

"Well, we  _ have _ to think about it, the application deadline is in January. I only got an answer back because I applied with early action. Plus, you have to get an F1 student visa, although I don't think it'll be that difficult because they don't make that big a deal with Europeans..."

"Christ, a visa? Are you listening to yourself? I haven't even said I want to study there!" Alyssa snapped. 

"Girls, girls," Rami intervened, always the peace-maker, "there'll be plenty of time to think about all of this. Let's just enjoy breakfast for now, okay?"

"I don't see why you can't come to England," Alyssa said quietly after a few moments of silence.

"Because I don't have the credits necessary! I'd have to take 3 A levels, and that's absurd! We've talked about this!"

"Jesus Christ, you two are fighting like you're already married," Joe quipped, trying to ease the tension.

Ben laughed, to no avail.

"Well, we're not!" Alyssa snapped, "just because some entity decided we should switch that doesn't mean we  _ have  _ to be together forever."

"It's not just  _ some  _ entity, it's the Universe! It's an all-knowing, omnipresent force that very,  _ very  _ rarely makes mistakes!"

"Well we must be pretty special then," Alyssa spat.

Suddenly there was a knock on the door. 

"I'll get it!" Joe said, springing to his feet, happy to leave that minefield of a conversation.

He glided through the foyer and opened the door. 

His heart fell down to his stomach.

At first, he thought it was Rami. They were so goddamn similar, the exact same height, built and features. But then he noticed the little differences. He had a different haircut, his cheeks were rounder, he had quite a bit of facial hair. His voice was different, too, just slightly varied in tone.

"Joseph," he said with a nod, "I'm sorry to interrupt your breakfast, but you need to let me come in. You guys aren't safe, especially not Ben and Alyssa. The bomb has been set off." 


	10. Nothing

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Amir comes back from the dead, and he's about to drop the biggest truth bomb the world has ever known. Get ready, things are about to go nuclear.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi. I'd apologize for the delay, but I feel like I'm doing too much of that already. Get ready because this is where the story gets crazy and sci-fi-y. I really hope you guys like it, let me know what you think! Constructive criticism is always welcome! Also, feel free to talk to me on Tumblr @dickcheneymademoneyofftheirakwar. I should probably change my username, but I love it!

Rami rolled his eyes as Joe sprinted to get the door. Always running off at the first sign of trouble, typical of him. He looked back at his daughter and her soulmate, who both had their eyes glued to the ground, steaming. He glanced over at Ben, who seemed to get a brilliant idea.

“You know what you could do?” He began, “Gwil told me about this American exchange program they’re doing at King's College right now. You could apply to that, go there for a semester, then Alyssa goes to America for another semester. Best of both worlds.”

"I don't want to go where dad works! I want some fucking independance," Alyssa protested.

"That's the whole reason why I applied to UCLA. So I could go away and be an adult," Queenie mused, "you know what? England is very pretty, and I want to write more than I want to film. I think some colleges over there accept the SAT, don't they?"

"Lancaster does. Pretty great arts college," Alyssa replied, half smiling.

Rami chuckled, "see? All is well!"

Suddenly, he heard footsteps to his right. Rami turned his head, expecting to see Joe coming back now that the coast was clear, but the man standing there wasn't Joe.

It took him a second to recognize him, it'd been so long, but once he did, it was like a key turning a lock and opening a door that had been shut for more than twenty years.  So many memories flashed before his eyes: playing in the woods behind their house, riding their bikes together, that time Kevin McGee kept called him 'frog face' so Amir punched him in the face and got in his first fight. Then came the memories he'd analyzed so many times, Amir going off to college at sixteen, then getting that phone call, that cursed phone call. His brother was dead, that's what they said. Left a suicide note in his dorm. Rami remembered that phone call painfully well, and all the feelings that came after: the hope that it was just a prank, the sinking feeling that he would never see him again. His brother's death had changed Rami's life forever, no one had ever treated him or their family the same. That's why he wanted to study psychology, that's why he worked harder than he ever had in his life to get to Harvard, because he wanted to be the best and because he wanted to get out of that town where everyone treated like something fragile, like a reminder of a tragedy everyone wanted to forget. After graduating, he got his first job as a psych intern at an ER. Those were the hardest years of his life, people coming in desperate, on the brink of death, feeling like their entire world had crumbled around them… Rami prepared with a smile to help them build it back up. He thought back to every world he'd helped rebuild, and how in doing so it felt a little bit like he was helping his brother. So many things happened after that. Joe, Queenie, getting his own practice, writing a book, winning awards. He still thought about Amir every day, when he noticed a nervous kid on the subway, when he passed by an arcade or an old bookstore… but he'd begun to fade away. At least, until now. Now he was standing right in front of him and Rami didn't know what to do. So he just stared at him, completely at a loss. 

Amir spoke first, "hi," he said, low and soft.

Rami swallowed the knot in his throat, "hi."

His brother immediately averted his gaze and began to crack his knuckles. Rami remembered that behavior quite well, he learned about it in college, it was called 'stimming' when someone on the spectrum tried to stimulate their senses to deal with a stressful situation.

Rami quickly closed the gap between them and wrapped his brother into a hug, he'd never been uncomfortable with physical touch, from what he remembered.

"You… you're not mad at me?" Amir breathed out, almost like he couldn't believe what he was saying.

"No, I'm not mad. I'm… I'm shocked, but I'm not mad."

Amir laughed, "well, that's good. I didn't really plan for you not being mad."

Rami hugged him tighter, "I missed you so much..." he said, "so much. I'm scared you're not real."

"Oh, he's real," Ben chimed in, "I can see him. He's real alright."

They both laughed. 

"No, wait, don't hug and laugh?! Why are you hugging and laughing?!" Joe asked incredulously, "he… he faked his own suicide! He pretended to be dead for years, and now all of a sudden he decides to show up and now you're hugging him?! What the fuck is going on?"

"Joseph, my brother just came back from the dead, I would really appreciate it if you stayed calm right now," Rami said sternly.

Joe pulled back at Rami using his full name. He never said his full name, ever, only when he'd said something really stupid. 

"No, it's okay," Amir intervened, "Joseph's right, you deserve an explanation."

"Thank you!"

"Alright, you better sit down… I have a lot to explain and not a lot of time to talk."

Everyone settled themselves on the couches while Amir took the big armchair, facing all of them.

"This better be good," Joe murmured.

Rami shushed him. 

Amir took a deep breath before saying, "The year was 1997. I'd been obsessed with soulmates my whole life, they were my  _ thing _ , my passion. I think I was obsessed mainly because I was amazed at how little information there was about soulmates. I mean, there are countless books and articles about waiting to get matched, things to say to your soulmate when you first switch, etc… but there was nothing about the first people that had switched, or how it worked. It's like everyone immediately assumed once you switched, that was your soulmate for life, and there was nothing on whether or not that was even true, everyone just took that information for granted. Now, I was sixteen at the time, and I always knew I was different. My parents knew, Rami knew, everyone knew. I was smart, I knew that, but I didn't know how much. I ended up graduating highschool that year, moved onto MIT. There, they were offering internships on a soulmate research program, trying to figure out the science behind switching, so of course I signed up. It was fine at first, we were just studying the wavelengths of animals, nothing insane. Then, I got introduced to this girl… Lucy.

She was even younger than me, fourteen, I think, and brilliant, maybe even smarter than me. They'd flown her in from London to consult on the study. She'd developed this machine that provided digital models of the brain in real time and allowed you to look at what parts of the brain were active. With her machine, we noticed something… something that wasn't right. We were scanning two possums that hated each other, they would always be at each other's throats. One day, to everyone's shock, they switched, and we caught the exact same moment on Lucy's machines. We studied the scans and noticed that their brains sort of.. morphed. They changed shape to look like the other one. They then strutted around in a confused state for a few hours and then their brains went back to their respective shapes. But then, the strangest thing happened: they stopped fighting altogether. They were kind to each other. However, what was even stranger was that they didn't mate. Usually, after switching, those two animals find each other and mated, but this time, they didn't. We tried with several other specimens and got the same result. They stopped fighting, but didn't always mate. When they did, it was random. This led us to the theory that switching wasn't meant as a mating decision, but as a way to create empathy so members of species wouldn't attack each other and they would survive. This idea challenged everything we knew about our world, it was revolutionary… but some people thought it was a bad thing.  

When the government people found out about our developments they were very displeased. They kicked us out of the program, and I got expelled from MIT. Lucy was afraid that the agents would track us down to try to tie up loose ends. And… I was in love with her. So I took her words for granted, wrote my suicide note and ran.

We continued our experiments in an abandoned factory in New Mexico. We hashed up a small team together, people who hadn't switched yet and wanted to find the truth. Our theory developed into a hypothesis that humans thought they loved each other because of a social construct, not because any love was there. But, in order to test this out we needed babies… loads of babies. And we needed for them to grow up without knowing soulmates existed. So, we got a few volunteers to conceive… and waited. We had five children, all which we raised without the idea that soulmates existed. Many years passed, fifteen I think: and then, we got a stroke of luck. Two of them switched. Mary and Matthew. They ran around for a while, all confused, it was very funny… and then they switched back and no romantic feelings sparked between them. They remained friends, but never lovers. There were several more switches, all with the same result: no relationship. Which lead us to the only conclusion: switching means nothing. It's an empathy building mechanism, nothing more." 


End file.
